A desktop widget is a small specialized graphical user interface (GUI) application that provides some visual information and/or easy access to frequently used functions such as clocks, calendars, news aggregators, calculators and desktop notes. A widget engine is a software service available to users for running and displaying desktop widgets on the desktop of a computer.
Web widgets are different than desktop widgets. Web widgets run inside a web page and are also known as “modules,” “gadgets,” “capsules,” “snippets,” “minis,” “flakes,” or “badges.” Web widgets allow a website developer to create a website by embedding content or tools from one site onto a page of another site. In contrast, a desktop widget is a desktop-based mini-application that shows discrete information, often connected to the Internet.
One of the most popular web widgets is Google Gadgets. Google Gadgets are miniature objects that provide dynamic content that may be placed on a web page. A Google Gadget is typically embedded within a page of HTML, i.e. a webpage, via embedding of a URL to the Google Gadget in the target webpage. The Google Gadget adds some content to that webpage that is not static.
Google Gadgets provide an XML/HTML/JavaScript solution to building web components that can be embedded in a webpage. These components, however, can only be utilized by someone with the knowledge, skills, and access to create and edit webpages, and to embed the Google Gadgets in those webpages.